By Maheesha Mudugamuwa
With critical construction deadlines fast approaching, a special Japanese envoy is to arrive in Colombo this month to negotiate the long delayed loan agreement between Sri Lanka and Japan for Phase III of the Central Expressway, The Sunday Morning learnt.
Last week, former Highways and Road Development Minister Kabir Hashim told The Sunday Morning that he would have to take a difficult decision regarding Phase III of the Central Expressway Project (CEP) as the Government couldn’t delay the construction of the interchange between Phase II and Phase III of the project further.
Contrary to the former Minister's statement, last week’s discussions held between officials from both countries on the CEP Phase III has concluded without an agreement reached by both sides, well-informed sources told The Sunday Morning.
According to him, during last week’s meeting, the two parties discussed the issues on both loan and consultancy agreements. With regard to the loan agreement, the issues were yet to be solved as the parties were asked to discuss them further.
“The two strict loan conditions that had been put forward by Japan were the arbitration law and the bribery settlement. Japan wanted the Japanese Arbitration Law to be applied in such legal disputes but the Attorney General’s (AG) Department wanted the Singaporean Arbitration law to be applied. The AG’s Department has explained the situation of other agreements like the one with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and now they are studying the agreement,” he explained.
“But the conditions with regard to bribery were yet to be discussed,” he added.
Highlighting the consultancy agreement, a source from the Road Development Authority (RDA) noted that the consultancy agreement had already expired and therefore it should be revalidated.
Since the agreement was made two years ago, the Japanese party initially wanted to increase the price which was not accepted by Sri Lanka. Finally, they were asked to send their interest in writing to revalidate the agreement.
The agreement needs to be submitted to the Cabinet to get its approval for the revalidation.
The next discussion will be held next week, the RDA source said.
Meanwhile, when The Sunday Morning contacted RDA Chairman Nihal Sooriarachchi, he said Sri Lanka wanted to get some construction work from them and do it under local contractors for the continuation of the CEP Phase II.
However, explaining the Chairman’s statement, the RDA official stressed that even though Sri Lanka wanted the interchange at Pothuhera, which presently comes under Phase III, to be included under Phase II, Japan had not liked the proposal.
With critical construction deadlines fast approaching, a special Japanese envoy is to arrive in Colombo this month to negotiate the long delayed loan agreement between Sri Lanka and Japan for Phase III of the Central Expressway, The Sunday Morning learnt.
Last week, former Highways and Road Development Minister Kabir Hashim told The Sunday Morning that he would have to take a difficult decision regarding Phase III of the Central Expressway Project (CEP) as the Government couldn’t delay the construction of the interchange between Phase II and Phase III of the project further.
Contrary to the former Minister's statement, last week’s discussions held between officials from both countries on the CEP Phase III has concluded without an agreement reached by both sides, well-informed sources told The Sunday Morning.
According to him, during last week’s meeting, the two parties discussed the issues on both loan and consultancy agreements. With regard to the loan agreement, the issues were yet to be solved as the parties were asked to discuss them further.
“The two strict loan conditions that had been put forward by Japan were the arbitration law and the bribery settlement. Japan wanted the Japanese Arbitration Law to be applied in such legal disputes but the Attorney General’s (AG) Department wanted the Singaporean Arbitration law to be applied. The AG’s Department has explained the situation of other agreements like the one with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and now they are studying the agreement,” he explained.
“But the conditions with regard to bribery were yet to be discussed,” he added.
Highlighting the consultancy agreement, a source from the Road Development Authority (RDA) noted that the consultancy agreement had already expired and therefore it should be revalidated.
Since the agreement was made two years ago, the Japanese party initially wanted to increase the price which was not accepted by Sri Lanka. Finally, they were asked to send their interest in writing to revalidate the agreement.
The agreement needs to be submitted to the Cabinet to get its approval for the revalidation.
The next discussion will be held next week, the RDA source said.
Meanwhile, when The Sunday Morning contacted RDA Chairman Nihal Sooriarachchi, he said Sri Lanka wanted to get some construction work from them and do it under local contractors for the continuation of the CEP Phase II.
However, explaining the Chairman’s statement, the RDA official stressed that even though Sri Lanka wanted the interchange at Pothuhera, which presently comes under Phase III, to be included under Phase II, Japan had not liked the proposal.